Great to chat with @JacquelynGill about cautious climate optimism. We are making slow, steady progress to a lower carbon world, and have made clean energy cheaper than we could have imagined a decade ago. Long way to go, but moving in the right direction. https://twitter.com/JacquelynGill/status/1343604044800139273

Optimism is not a suggestion that unmitigated climate impacts are not terrible (they would be!) or that we are doing enough today to get to 2C or below. Rather, its an acknowledgement that we can effectively mitigate climate change while building a equitable, prosperous world.

A "current policy" outcome today likely results in a full degree less warming than it would have a decade ago. Net zero targets announced by countries get us nearly to 2C – though paper targets need to be backed by policy and we want to limit warming to well-below 2C.

So while we cannot downplay the scope of the challenge before us, a its much easier to believe that its possible to "bend the curve" of emissions down to below 2C in a world on track for 2.6C than one on track for 4C+: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00177-3